Local food lore on book club menu tonight

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The Free Press Book Club, in conjunction with McNally Robinson Booksellers, is pleased to welcome Winnipeg authors and academics Janis Thiessen and Kimberley Moore to the next virtual meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 27, at 7 p.m. to discuss their new book, mmm…Manitoba: The Stories Behind the Foods We Eat.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/07/2024 (805 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Free Press Book Club, in conjunction with McNally Robinson Booksellers, is pleased to welcome Winnipeg authors and academics Janis Thiessen and Kimberley Moore to the next virtual meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 27, at 7 p.m. to discuss their new book, mmm…Manitoba: The Stories Behind the Foods We Eat.

Published by University of Manitoba Press earlier this year, mmm…Manitoba is part cookbook and part local history book.

Thiessen and Moore are colleagues at the University of Winnipeg’s Oral History Centre. In 2018, they embarked on the Manitoba Food History Project, which saw them interview dozens of home cooks, chefs, brewers, farmers, grocers and restaurant owners aboard a retrofitted food truck.

John Woods / The Canadian Press files
                                Kimberley Moore (left) and Janis Thiessen

John Woods / The Canadian Press files

Kimberley Moore (left) and Janis Thiessen

The COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to their road trips, but the authors continued exploring the province’s food history through archival material. Mmm…Manitoba is the culmination of that research.

Over seven chapters, the book explores how food has been produced in Manitoba and what that can tell us about everything from colonialism to gender to migration to government policy. Sections include recipes, excerpts from interviews and scannable QR codes linking to pertinent episodes from the Oral History Centre’s podcast series.

Thiessen and Moore will join Free Press reporter Eva Wasney, Chris Hallof McNally Robinson and Free Press multimedia producer Nadya Pankiw for the virtual book club meeting on Aug. 27, where they’ll discuss the book’s themes and answer questions from viewers/readers. Copies of the book are available to purchase at McNally Robinson; there’s no cost to join the book club and virtual discussion.

To join the Free Press Book Club and for more information on current and future book picks, visit Book club.

mmm… Manitoba

mmm… Manitoba

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